Thursday, November 1, 2012

Service Tax :- Adjustment of Service Tax paid in Excess

Can any adjustment of tax liability be made by an assessee on his own, in cases when Service Tax has been paid in excess?

i. Yes. Where an assessee has issued an invoice, or received any payment, against a service to be provided which is not so provided by him either wholly or partially for any reason (or when the invoice amount is renegotiated due to deficient provision of service, or any terms contained in a contract) the assessee may take the credit of such excess service tax paid by him, if the assesse has refunded the payment or part received fr the service provided or has issued a credit note for the value of the service not so provided to the person to whom an invoice had been issued. (Rule 6(3) of the STR, 1994).

ii. Further, assesses having centralised registration who paid excess amount of Service Tax, on account of non-receipt of details regarding the receipt of gross amount for the services at his other premises or offices, may adjust such excess amount against the Service Tax liability for the subsequent period and furnish the details of such adjustment to the Jurisdictional Superintendent of Central Excise/Service Tax within 15 days from the date of such adjustment (Rule 6(4A) of the STR, 1994).

iii. In all other cases of excess payment, refund claims have to be filed with the Department. The refund claims would be dealt as per the provisions of Section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944, which is made applicable to Service Tax vide Section 83 of the Finance Act 1994.

iv. It is important to note that any amount of Service Tax paid in excess of the actual liability, is refundable, only if it is proved that the claimant of refund had already refunded such amount to the person from whom it was received or had not collected at all (Section 11 B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 which is applicable to Service Tax matters under Section 83 of the Act).